Published December 5th, 2018

German brand Cube offers a wide range of road bikes with a focus on performance, comfort and value for money, with smart design and choice of frame materials. Navigating a company's range of bikes can often be bewildering, but Cube’s road range is relatively easy to make sense of. The German brand offers Litening lightweight race bikes, Agree carbon-fibre endurance road bikes, and an Attain lineup, in both carbon and aluminium, that’s more comfort focused.

The new Nuroad bikes look interesting too. These are aluminium framed with disc brakes along with mudguard and rack mounts and enough clearance for 40mm tyres. If you’re looking for something with plenty of versatility, this could be a good place to start your search.

Attains are endurance road bikes that are designed with comfort in mind. They’re divided into the HPA aluminium models and GTC carbon-fibre models (below). You can get rim brake and disc brake versions of each.

All of the Attain bikes are built to a geometry that’s a little more relaxed than that of the Litening race bikes (below), with a shorter reach and a higher stack height for a position that’s designed to be more comfortable over long distances.

The Attain HPAs feature double butted 6061 T6 aluminium frames and aluminium steerer/ carbon legged forks. They come with compact chainsets to help with the hills.

The cheapest model in the range is the straight Attain (above, £649) which is built up with Shimano’s entry-level Claris groupset and Cube’s own RA 0.8 Aero wheels.

The Attain SL Disc tops the range at £1,299 with a Shimano 105 groupset and hydraulic disc brakes.

The Attain GTC models are made to the same endurance geometry as the Attain HPAs (above) but they’re built around carbon-fibre framesets that feature what Cube calls Flex Stays at the back, designed to absorb shock.

When we reviewed the 2017 version of the Attain GTC SLT Disc here on road.cc we said, “It isn't a lightweight, aggressive race bike, it's a bike for getting in the big miles in comfort. It's certainly up for riding fast, but smoothness is more this bike's thing. That's the most obvious characteristic of the ride.”

The most affordable model is the rim brake GTC Pro (above, £1,399) which comes with a Shimano 105 groupset and Mavic’s great value Aksium RS wheels.

The top model in the range is the Attain GTC SL Disc (above, £1,899). This one is built up with Shimano’s second tier Ultegra groupset, including reliable hydraulic disc brakes, and Fulcrum Racing 66 wheels. That’s a tidy parts package!

The carbon-fibre Litening bikes are designed with racing in mind. You can choose between rim brake and disc brake models all built to the same performance-orientated geometry that puts you into a low and stretched riding position.

Two models in the range use C:62 while one model uses C:68, which is said by Cube to be stiffer and at 850g is also lighter. It's ridden by the Wanty–Groupe Gobert pro team. This Litening C:68 SL (£3,999) is built up with Shimano’s flagship Dura-Ace groupset and Mavic Ksyrium Elite Black wheels.

Cube describes its Agree range as “aero-inspired endurance performance”. All four of the Agree bikes use the same carbon-fibre as the C:62 Litening models (above) and they’re built to a geometry that sits somewhere between that of the Attain endurance bikes and the Litening race bikes. In other words, the riding position is a little more upright than you’ll find on a pure competition bike but it’s still performance orientated.

The Agree includes features like a semi-integrated seat clamp, slim seatstays and a narrow legged fork, all designed to reduce frontal area, although Cube hasn’t released figures relating to the bike’s aero efficiency.

Cube's brand new Nuroad models are aluminium bikes with disc brakes, and they’re designed to be versatile enough to cope with a variety of different surfaces – mud and gravel as well as tarmac.

Cube says that they bridge the gap between road and cyclocross, and that’s a good way of putting it. Mudguard and rack mounts mean the Nuroads are also adaptable for all weather commuting, for example.

The 6061 T6 aluminium frame is made to a gravel/comfort geometry with stack and reach measurements fairly similar to those of the Attain although the chainstays and wheelbase are longer and the head angle is slacker. Both the frame and the alloy steerer/ carbon legged fork are thru axle and will take tyres up to 40mm wide (35-36mm tyres are fitted) so you can get plenty of comfort on rough roads.

The most affordable model, simply called the Nuroad, comes fitted with a 10-speed Shimano Tiagra groupset and Tektro Spyre mechanical disc brakes which have always impressed us here at road.cc.

The Axial WS C:62 SL Disc (above, £2,499) is similar to the Agree C:62 Disc bikes (above). It’s built to a high-end spec with a Shimano Ultregra groupset, including hydraulic disc brakes, and Mavic Cosmic Elite wheels.

The Axial GTC SL Disc is similar to the Attain GTC with a geometry that’s designed for comfort. There are two models: the Axial WS GTC Pro (£1,499) with rim brakes, and the disc brake equipped Axial WS GTC SL Disc (£1,899).

The Axial HPA is the women’s equivalent of the Attain HPA, giving you an aluminium frame and a carbon-legged fork. There are three models, the entry-level Axial WS (below, £699) being built up with Shimano’s 8-speed Claris groupset, including rim brakes.

The other two models have disc brakes, the more affordable of them, the Axial WS Pro Disc (£849) coming with a next level up Shimano Sora groupset and Tektro’s mechanical Lyra disc brakes.

Buy if: You’re looking for a road bike designed specifically for women

Cube offers three aluminium Cross Race HPA cyclocross bikes, all of them equipped with disc brakes.

The double butted frame comes with a top tube that’s shaped to be comfortable when you’re carrying it on your shoulder during a race, and both the frame and the carbon fork take 12mm thru axles.

The base Cross Race mode is built up with a Shimano 105 groupset, Tektro Lyra mechanical disc brakes and 33mm wide Schwalbe X-One Allround cyclocross tyres. You get a compact chainset (with 50-tooth and 34-tooth chainrings) on this model, which is more suitable for the road and mixed surfaces than for cyclocross racing.

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David has worked on the road.cc tech team since July 2012. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds.